The Tuesday Leg Lock Report 04.08.08

Posted by Justin Thomas on 04.08.2008

In the second edition of the Tuesday Leg Lock, 411's Justin Thomas takes a closer look at Cung Le and Sokoudjou and their place in Top 10 rankings! Plus, thoughts about future DREAM events, YAMMA's upcoming event, Shogun's return, UFC 86, Kimbo's next opponent, Kevin Randleman and more! Remember, Tuesday Leg Lock Report - Your best MMA news report!

Welcome to the second edition of The Tuesday Leg Lock Report. This report will be a little bizarre, because I don't really have any big news and I won't review any events. So I'll just remove the "BIG NEWS" section and add "MY MMA RAMBLINGS". Not sure if that's one time only or not. I guess we'll see next week. And of course, I could've given my thoughts about UFC Fight Night XIII, but it happened almost a week ago and everyone already reviewed it. To make up for that, I'll preview DREAM events and YAMMA Pit Fighting's debut show. Also, I'll give you my thoughts on Sokoudjou and Cung Le. Do they belong in the Top 10 or not? Why? You'll find all the answers below…




MY MMA RAMBLINGS

YAMMA Time!



So last week I discussed WAMMA, and this time, I'll talk about YAMMA Pit Fighting, which holds its first event on Friday. This is not really a preview, just my thoughts on this whole project. A promotion, started by UFC founder Bob Meyrowitz, lost Gary Goodrige (23-16-1 MMA), who was knocked out by Mu Bae Choi (7-2 MMA) in Korea. Jersey State Athletic Control Board requires 30 days of inactivity following a KO. Unfortunately, this isn't the only change to YAMMA's inaugural event, as both Don Frye (19-6 MMA) and Mark Kerr (15-6 MMA) have been removed from the card as well. The good news is that Patrick Smith (14-13 MMA), who was also removed from the event, after being arrested, is back and he'll replace Gary Goodridge as the opponent for Eric Esch (10-5-1 MMA).

Let me remind you, that originally it was supposed to be Gary Goodridge vs. Eric Esch and Don Frye vs. Oleg Taktarov (15-5-2 MMA). YAMMA will also feature an 8 man tournament, retro UFC like. The quarter finals and semifinals will be one 5 minute round and the finals will be 3 five minute rounds. Current participants are:

* Marcelo Pereira (0-0 MMA)
* Sherman Pendergarst (10-8 MMA)
* Ricco Rodriguez (27-8 MMA)
* Tony Sylvester (10-1 MMA)
* Chris Tuscherer (11-0 MMA)
* Travis Wiuff (49-11 MMA)
* Alexey Oleynik (0-0 MMA?)
* George Bush (5-0 MMA)

Apparently, the fights will be contested in an innovative cage. So my thoughts on this? It has all the makings of a complete disaster. The 39+ years old "Masters" are being pulled off the card and the new cage idea sounds ridiculous. At first, I was looking forward to the event, because I like both Don Frye and Gary Goodrige, even if they are certainly past their prime. Now that they are both gone, there's nothing to look forward to. Well, except, maybe Ricco Rodriguez, who is probably the best MMA fighter in the entire card. He should win the tournament, if he won't gas. So basically, I like tournaments, I Like "Masters" division (and I think Ken Shamrock should be a part of it too), but in my opinion, YAMMA will lose alot of PPV buys because so many fighters had to be pulled off. And that new cage idea... we'll see, but I don't expect good things from it. Bob Meyrowitz was certainly the founder MMA in USA, but now that there are so many organizations out there, I don't think YAMMA will ever be big. That's only my point of view though and I could very well be wrong...

DREAM NEWS



We got some news from Japan! FEG finally decided when two top lightweights – Shinya Aoki (14-2 MMA) and "JZ" Calvancante (14-1-1 MMA) will meet in a rematch. The first fight ended in a controversial no contest, when Gesias landed a few elbows to Aoki's spine/back to the head and the fight was ruled a no contest, because Shinya could not continue. In my opinion, the elbows were legal, but I'm glad to see a rematch. It will happen in 3 weeks, at DREAM 2. The winner of the fight will move to quarter finals, which will be at DREAM 3. Now let's preview the middleweight tournament which is going to happen at DREAM 2! Here are the current matches:

Kazushi Sakuraba (23-10-1 MMA) vs. Andrews Nakahara (0-0 MMA)
Kiyoshi Tamura (30-13-1 MMA) vs. Masakatsu Funaki (38-12-1 MMA)
Denis Kang (29-9-1 MMA) vs. Gegard Mousasi (20-2-1 MMA)

Nothing surprising here. Both Sakuraba and Kang were given easy opponents. Kazushi is way past his prime (he was in his prime like 6 years ago) and I don't imagine him making past the second round, but Dennis is definitely a favorite to win the whole tournament, along with Akiyama (10-1 MMA) and Misaki (19-8-2 MMA), if they'll be booked for the tournament. I don't know what the hell is Funaki doing here. He returned to MMA after a 7 years break to fight Sakuraba, but he lost. Funaki was a good (not great) MMA fighter, but after so many years, I can't imagine him winning. Tamura is no joke and I think he still has something left in the tank, well at least more than Funaki. So, currently a lot of old men in the tournament, obviously because of their name value in Japan. Well, let's wait for more fights to be revealed.

Some DREAM 3 fights have been revealed as well. The quarter finals look like this:

Calvancante/Aoki vs. Katsuhiko Nagata (4-2 MMA)
Mitsuhiro Ishida (16-3-1 MMA) vs. Caol Uno (24-10-4 MMA)
Eddie Alvarez (13-1 MMA) vs. Joachim Hansen (17-6-1 MMA)
Tatsuya Kawajiri (21-4-2 MMA) vs. Luiz Firmino (12-3 MMA)

The winner of JZ/Aoki fight should be the favorite to win the whole tournament, however fighting two times in two weeks might be a little tough and I wouldn't be too surprised if Nagata would upset the winner of the superfight (unlikely though). Eddie Alvarez vs. Joachim Hansen should be very interesting too and I have no idea who's gonna win, but I'll be rooting for the only American fighter in the Grand Prix. I see both Kawajiri and Ishida advancing to the semis.

In conclusion, I'm waiting for both DREAM 2 and DREAM 3, but I'm currently not too excited for the Middleweight Grand Prix, as only one Top 10 guy was announced as part of the event, which is sad. I'm, of course, waiting for Gesias vs. Aoki II and the whole LWGP is just awesome. DREAM For The Win! I just hope they manage to get more fighters in various divisions and book fights earlier, not two days before the event…

IS CUNG LE – A TOP 10 MIDDLEWEIGHT?



You know, not long after "STRIKEFORCE: SHAMROCK vs. LE" event, there was a poll on sherdog.com, which asked if Cung Le (6-0 MMA) was a top 10 middleweight or not. I chose "No" and was kind of surprised, when I saw that about 70% of the voters chose "Yes". You know what, he's 35 years old and he's new to MMA. We don't know how good his ground game really is, but in Cung's fight against Sam Morgan (19-10 MMA), he didn't show anything after taking Sam down. I mentioned his age, because it's not like he's young, but he is still in his learning stages as an MMA fighter. It should be more difficult to learn BJJ for a 35 years old man, then for, let's say, 24 years old guy. So again, his only notable win is against Frank Shamrock (23-9-2 MMA) and I believe he got lucky, that he managed to break Shamrock's arm. Yes, yes, Cung was winning the fight, but winning rounds against Frank means nothing, as Shamrock always uses a gameplan in the fight and I believe, if not for the broken arm, Frank would've won.

I'm actually a guy, who believes, fighters need more than one win against a Top 10 fighter to be considered a Top 10 guy himself (with exceptions of course). So far, Cung has 0 wins against Top 10 opponents. So called "MMA experts" bash Mirko after his two disappointing losses, say that he's done, but the fact of the matter is that he's still beaten a lot of top heavyweights and he has fought 31 times (won 23), not 6, like Cung, and guess what, Mirko is actually 2 years younger! So he can still improve. My point is that experience and fights against top competition should be considered the main criteria when ranking Top 10 fighters. Currently, Cung Le doesn't have either and, in my honest opinion, is nowhere near Top 10.

Also, there were some talks about how awesome would Anderson Silva (21-4 MMA) vs. Le be. And I agree. I'd love to see that fight. They are both entertaining and watching their striking war would be interesting. Stylistically, this would be a good fight for Cung, as I think Silva would likely bang with Le, despite being better on the ground, but still I don't see Le winning this one. It's a little sad, but I don't think it will happen in the near future as ProElite will try to keep Le, 'cause he's one of their main draws and UFC will try to keep their dominant champion. Of course, this still could happen in YAMMA Pit Fighting after 20 years in the "Masters" division… ;)

IS SOKOUDJOU – A TOP 10 LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT?



Some colleagues in the staff forum said that Sokoudjou (4-2 MMA) shouldn't be considered as a Top 10 fighter, because he only has 6 fights. That's correct, but he has accomplished alot more than Cung Le, despite the fact, that Soko lost twice. He devastated TWO top PRIDE fighters – Ricardo Arona (13-5 MMA) and Rogerio Nogueira (13-3 MMA). Let me remind you, that Arona has victories over Dan Henderson, Wanderlei Silva, Sakuraba, Mezger and his only losses, before the fight with Soko were to top competition – Fedor, Shogun, Rampage & Silva. Those are certainly Top 10 fighters. But Rameau added himself to the list of fighters, who managed to defeat Arona. And Rogerio Nogueira was certainly a top light heavyweight too, with victories over Sakuraba, Mezger, Nakamura (twice), Overeem (twice) and he, like his brother, was never finished in his career before the fight with Rameau. In my opinion, Rogerio was and still is a very underrated fighter and it's a shame he never got a title shot. Sokoudjou knocked out Nogueira in 23 seconds. If that's still not enough to warrant a Top 10 spot, then let's talk about Mauricio Rua (16-3 MMA). Why was he, before the loss to Forrest, considered a No. 1 fighter in the world? Because he beat Quinton? Yes, but not only that. He also beat Rogerio Nogueira and Ricardo Arona, yes the same two fighters, that Sokoudjou knocked out. Rameau is still inexperienced, no doubt about it, but the guy has some serious victories and is still only 23 years old, so unlike, Cung Le, he can still learn alot and with a knockout power like that, training in Team Quest and judo background, he can become a great fighter.

My point is, that Rameau definitely should've been in Top 10 after his two huge victories against two fighters, who were considered to be a part of Top 10 or maybe Top 5 light heavyweights. Now, after his loss to Lyoto, one can remove Soko from the list and if he loses to Nakamura, then you can call those two KO victories a fluke. But for now, any comparison with Houston Alexander (8-3 MMA) is stupid, because Alexander's two victories, unlike Soko, were not against Top 10 fighters (Jardine at the time didn't have a victory over Liddell). I personally believe, that Sokoudjou will beat Nakamura (11-7 MMA) and make an impact in UFC LHW division. Only time will tell if I'm right…


OTHER NEWS

Shogun to return in September/October. Reportedly, his surgery was a success and he thanked Dana White for the help. I'm very excited. I really like Chute Boxe fighters and their aggressiveness. The Rua/Liddell fight would've been HUGE, but now that it's out of the picture, I'd like to see UFC give Shogun (16-3 MMA) a not so tough opponent. Rua looked bad against Forrest (15-4 MMA), but I still believe that he can win against anyone, even without the stomps or soccer kicks. Let's just hope that he won't get injured again.

UFC 86: Frank Mir vs. Justin McCully. Aww, this is just bad. Mir (11-3 MMA) has nothing to gain from this fight and everything to lose. Well, considering that the UFC HW division is so weak, I wouldn't be surprised if he'd become the #1 contender after this victory, but he'd be a big underdog against Nogueira. Justin (8-3-2 MMA) only had one fight in the UFC, where he looked awful against Hardonk, even though he got the win. If Frank wins this one, he'll add another no-name to his "not so impressive" MMA record. If he loses, he might be out of UFC title picture forever. Anyways, Mir should win this one, if he won't get gassed in the first minute of the fight…

Kimbo Slice vs. James Thompson – official. James lost 6 out of his 8 last fights and that pretty much tells the story. Maybe he's one step above Tank Abbott, but should still be considered a can. I expect that Kimbo will crush Thompson, but this should be an exciting striking war. And the purpose of the fight is to establish Kimbo Slice as a star and this might accomplish that, unless Kimbo gets caught by a shot from James, which is unlikely. So really, not a bad move by ProElite at all.

Anderson Silva vs. Roy Jones Jr. NOT possible in the near future. This is a follow up from last week. Dana White officially ended any rumors about a possible fight between these two. I can't fault Dana for this. Silva would have probably lost and that's not a good thing, because UFC wants to keep his undefeated image alive. Personally, I don't care that the fight isn't going to happen.

Kevin Randleman returns. The former UFC Heavyweight champion is going to compete at WVR: Sengoku II (May 18th). Well Kevin (16-12 MMA) is certainly past his prime and I'm not sure if it's wise to return to the ring. He had various problems in his personal life, including a staph infection. Randleman lost 5 of his last 6 fights. The same can't be said about his opponent Jim York (9-1) who won 9 straight, finishing all his opponents. I wish Randleman all the best, but I think he'll realize after this fight, that he left all of his glorious days behind…

UFC 87: Huerta vs. Florian? It is currently rumored that Roger Huerta (20-1-1 MMA) is going to fight (after taking some time off) at UFC 87. Florian, after his win against Lauzon, wants to be Roger's opponent. The fight would definitely be exciting, but I don't think that would be a good move. Florian should already be the #1 contender and Huerta is like 1 fight away from a title shot. So, in my opinion, it would be better to have a Lightweight title match in August/September – BJ Penn/Sean Sherk vs. Kenny Florian and then in December/January – BJ Penn/Sean Sherk/Kenny Florian vs. Roger Huerta (if Huerta wins at UFC 87). Those would be two decent main events and we could still see Florian/Huerta in the future, so this would be the best.

Fedor wants $2 millions... per fight. Last week I said that EliteXC should do whatever it takes to sign Fedor. But now, that he wants two million dollar per fight, it's ridiculous. There are some reports that he got $1.5 million for his Yarennoka fight, but that was in Japan. Not even UFC pays so much for their biggest stars (for comparison, Chuck Liddell received $500,000 for his UFC 79 fight). Fedor isn't a big name in the US and won't draw ratings, so paying so much isn't worth it. Not for EXC, not for UFC. This could very well indicate, that Emelianenko is going to fight in Japan.

UFC ratings. UFC Fight Night XIII got a 1.1 rating, while TUF Premiere episode got a 1.3. It's a bit surprising, that TUF got a bigger rating. Fight Night was full of awesome fights, no huge names though, but it was certainly more interesting than TUF. UFC should be happy with the rating TUF got, even if it's a bit down from TUF6 premiere episode, which scored a 1.5, but ratings got smaller with each episode, and I believe, the last episodes scored about 0.5, which is really low. Let's hope that Team Rampage vs. Team Forrest will be more exciting. These preliminary rounds were cool, but I hope there'll be more changes. I might puke if I see everyone crashing the house again. It's so lame.


BYE BYE!

And that wraps up the second edition of The Tuesday Leg Lock report. I know this week's report was a little short, but I might actually do a better job next time. Thank you for reading and please leave some comments. See you all next week!